Kristen Schiele creates bold, immersive, and semi-abstract paintings, collages, and installations inspired, in her words, by “stage sets, cinema, folklore, allegory, kitsch, and storytelling that is theatrical and playful.” Most comfortable at large-scale—“give me 6 feet please,” she says—she mashes up materials, techniques, and images in her canvases, which are often anchored by architectural settings. Working in series, and focusing primarily on painting, she begins by collaging together sketches and images from her extensive library. She works on up to 15 canvases simultaneously, moving back-and-forth between them. Seductive female figures, inspired by vintage magazines, populate many of her compositions, imbuing them with narrative tension. A sense of a storyline—dreamlike, fragmented—runs throughout all of Schiele’s work, reflecting her view of art as a form of dialogue.